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At first I had a really hard time accepting pof's claim that the HTC-Shift could be run under Linux and indeed my first attempts at this turned into a blinding nightmare of installs & reinstalls and utter frustration.
Because I tried to install my Laptop's SuSE Linux on the box, which won't even boot below version 11.0.
And even so it does install OK with 11.0 SuSE and I had sound and graphic running, none of the other functions could be enabled no matter what.
Last not least I have to say that other SuSE distros either have a hard time booting right on the Shift (DSL, GParted distro) w/o safety kernel parameters set or get problems with the graphics HW (e.g. Knoppix).
I made those initial mistakes because dear old pof forgot to make clear that the drivers he collected should only run on (K/X)Ubuntu.
Because as I found out through my own research, specially the SD6868 driver was specifically developed by & for the Ubuntu project.
Many of the other distros didn't work right even after installation.
They either stalled during boot time or got the partition table all messed up.
Specially the boot via GRUB install (for dual boot with WinXP) turned out to be a pain in the ass with anything but Ubuntu.
Only Ubuntu booted right away (still had to disable edd, apm and acpi on the installation, but with it all went through fine the first time around).
So please dear pof update your Website to point out that only Ubuntu (or Kubuntu/Xubuntu) should be used on the Shift.
With that, pof's driver collection works out of the box.
But the Touchscreen needs calibration and the Touchpad's sensitivity is originally set way to low.
Once those two settings are corrected it all works fine (albeit the touchscreen is still a bit clunky, its good enough to move windows around, fill out input forms and highlight text).
The WiFi connection also worked right away and was even faster than under Windoze - BUT I can not connect to a standard WEP128 bit encrypted network.
Only unencrypted connections seem to work at this time.
Battery and sensor connections also work, as does the USB port.
I can also switch resolutions - but no longer with the screen button which now only tilts the desktops, I have to use the KDE screen resolution application for that.
The font rendering has way(!!) improved over Vista. I finally can read small texts even at higher resolution.
And overall responsiveness is almost to fast for me
No more coffee breaks between tasks and boot-up time is down to under 3 minutes!
Multimedia also works at blazing speeds now. I can watch large movies at real time and even do MultiMedia editing.
Best of all, that nasty Vista bug with the missing/dropping SD cards is gone.
So all in all it was a steep learning curve (as always /w Linux) but now I finally got a useful machine which is a real asset to my productivity!
pharao said:
So please dear pof update your Website to point out that only Ubuntu (or Kubuntu/Xubuntu) should be used on the Shift.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my website it clearly states that the binary driver packages I published is for Ubuntu based distros only, because that's what I use on the shift. I also explain the "long way" to compile stuff etc, in case you want to run them in any other distro, because you can run any linux flavour on the shift as long as you have experience compiling your own kernel, and building some packages from source.
pof said:
In my website it clearly states that the binary driver packages I published is for Ubuntu based distros only, because that's what I use on the shift. I also explain the "long way" to compile stuff etc, in case you want to run them in any other distro, because you can run any linux flavour on the shift as long as you have experience compiling your own kernel, and building some packages from source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But that's exactly it pof ... it just won't compile on most other systems.
On SuSE you'll have double trouble because first the darn install DVD don't boot with anything below 11.0 but then the kernel for 11.0 starts with release x.26.
That's one version number to high for your package and even so I tried to still compile it in there, the modules won't load.
Second, the GUIs of these distros are just to separate amongst the different packages.
DSL boots up all right, but has trouble installing itself on the Hard Drive, much more so with the Desktop setting and any attempt at switching resolution.
Knoppix works sometimes and then again it doesn't - was never able to figure out what that was all about.
And the SuSE 11.0 distro doesn't give any error messages when I call up the embeddec controller program - heck the damn thing even allows me to click all around. But nothing happens, not with any of them.
And don't even try to get me started on trying to install Debian packages under SuSE :-(
I'm not sure how much you are into Linux pof, but messing around with the kernel is the last thing you want to do unless you're sure its gonna work.
And I've found that K/X/Ubuntu is the only distro that works out of the box, even during the install phase.
So I think just stating "well the packages are for Debian/Ubuntu systems but you can compile them on other distros, too" is not quite sufficient - as those other distros did cost me a week of my life (time I'd like to have back ;-)
Fact is that Ubuntu doesn't just work on the Shift right away, but its also the fastest distro amongst the ones I've listed.
So for all these reasons Ubuntu should get a big highlight with the sidenote "all other distros at your own risk as your mileage will(!) vary"
Only encrypted WiFi still isn't working...
PS: The folks at SuSE seem to be contemplating their own SD6868 driver for their next 11.x Alpha release - found a note to that regard on a developer blog.
And External mouse doesn't work
pof said:
In my website it clearly states that the binary driver packages I published is for Ubuntu based distros only, because that's what I use on the shift. I also explain the "long way" to compile stuff etc, in case you want to run them in any other distro, because you can run any linux flavour on the shift as long as you have experience compiling your own kernel, and building some packages from source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Pof,
I used your custm drivers for ubuntu,Screen touch working great but external mouse has stopped wiorking.Is there anything wrong I have done ?
Thanks
I'm about to dual boot my box again, since alot of the stuff on the forums is for linux to start with, then works its way to windows. It's been a while since i played with linux, recompiling kernels had me pulling my hair out going f*%$ this MS Dos is more user friendly lols. Just curious which distibution you developers and programmers are useing, if you think one is better than the others for whatever reason.
Thanks in advance,
N1
Not really a developer but I have a gentoo64 2008.0
Why gentoo?
because you know what stuff you have in since you start with almost nothing. xD
but all other distribution are the same :
-Package manager
-user friendly
-Good autodetection of almost all your devices.
If you're not really familiar with linux I would tell you to go with ubuntu.
The community is really active, and the packages are well maintened.
personally i use Ubuntu 8.10(intrepid) it is very user friendly and i have been using it for a while so i know how to develope my themes and i know a good number of commands that i can use on the comp and on the phone.
Thanks for the suggestions, got ubuntu installed yesterday, been pulling hair out ever since
Ah man... Ubuntu's a breeze. What's making you pull your hair out?
I picked Ubuntu because of its Mac OSXness. Easy to use and very functional. Completely switched all my computers to dual boot now. Windows is for Excel now and that's about it.
lol I use Puppy Linux
Namely because It's even more stripped down then gentoo. The full installer is around 100mb. I have the installer on my MicroSD card as a live distro. Throw the card+MicroSD reader in a USB slot, change bios to boot from usb and whalla! Easiest Dual-Boot ever.
The Installer for Puppy actually installs the OS to my laptop's RAM leaving my hard-drives completely untouched. Full installation takes about 5 minutes.
When I'm done in linux, I just reboot, yank the USB and I'm back in windows. (there's also options to save your settings and things that you have changed to the MicroSD so they'll be there next time you boot from the USB)
sorry to tell you this but in term of installer size you can't do less than gentoo
ftp://ftp.free.fr/mirrors/ftp.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/2008.0/installcd/
xDDD
My bad... "Namely because It's even more stripped down then gentoo. The full installer is around 100mb." thx for correcting me dixxa, 67mb is pretty small
Although you can go a bit smaller http://damnsmalllinux.org/ 50mb
but I've had no luck setting DSL up successfully :/
Check out http://www.ultimateedition.info. It's a modified and improved ubuntu. It's not small but it's very beginner friendly and well supported and full of eyecandy. I use Ultimate Edition 2.1 x64bit.
my 2 cents
If you're new to linux: ubuntu (I started on mandriva, which I think is also really good. Bonus: compiz can be selected as default during install )
If you want to learn the true unix core of linux: slackware
Once you know what you're doing: gentoo
Got all three on my machine right now to play around with, with a shared home partition
I use Ubuntu, which is a knock-off of Debian, and that is a GREAT thing because the "apt-get" tools (like the Synaptic Package Manager) are the best thing going for upgrading and maintaining the Linux system.
Thanks for all the replies, started with ubuntu which has come a long way since the last time i played with linux, that extreme edition is pretty sweet, i have to assume, that all of that can be added to your basic ubuntu install, once i figure out what im doing again
I have been trying to learn how to do some android development for work and keep running into problems. I find it hard to believe that people are able to create a lot of these apps with the Google development tools in such poor condition.
I have set up a development system with eclipse and the android tools. One of the first problems I ran into is ADB crashing whenever I tried to debug and there was a device attached to the system. Didn't matter if I was trying to debug on the device or emulator, ADB would crash. I was finally able to get the problem fixed by using the Composite ADB interface driver instead of the plain ADB interface (would it really hurt Google to add one sentence to the directions to tell people this?)
Now every time I go to debug, the emulator comes up in Chinese/Japaneses. I type in English and it converts it. I can fix it by changing the input method, but I have to do it every time I start the emulator. I have Googled looking for a solution and have found this is a known problem that has been around for almost a year and there is no resolution with it. The bug reports I have found on the android site even lists them still as NEW!
When trying to debug a problem, I wanted to delete the shared preference file for the app as it seems like it had become corrupted and every time it went to read it, the app would force close. (And when this happen, the debugger perspective would come up but for the life of me, I could not find any information as to what caused the fault or any sort of stack trace to look back and see where in my code it failed).
If you are an app developer, are you running into these issues? Have you found ways to work around the problems? I just can't believe that this is the way people develop for this platform. I'm ready to tell my boss that we forget about the platform unless we can find some stable development tools, otherwise we will be spending more time fighting with the tools than working on the app.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would really like to hear them. I'm not a noob when it comes to software development (20+ years as a software engineer), but I have never seen development tools for such a major platform, be this poorly done. What am I missing?
I'm a professional developer as well too. 20 years or so as a C/C++ developer, but I've worked most of my career as a Unix developer. Naturally, I use linux where possible and my Eclipse setup on Gentoo linux is pretty stable. I tried on Win7-64 but it was buggy as heck. I believe that the problem is with Java. There seems to be so many ways to set it up wrong that I'm not sure you can set it up right under windows.
I find it ironic that Oracle is trying to sue Google for making a JVM that actually works!
I havent had any of your mentioned issues. I am running eclipse on a 32 vista machine and a 64 bit windows 7 machine.
Not sure what I may have done different that you for setup. But I followed the Android application development for dummies book. The author goes step by step of what to download and how to install and configure. Even though your software experience is way beyond this book maybe its worth picking it up to read the install notes.
FreeTheWorld said:
I havent had any of your mentioned issues. I am running eclipse on a 32 vista machine and a 64 bit windows 7 machine.
Not sure what I may have done different that you for setup. But I followed the Android application development for dummies book. The author goes step by step of what to download and how to install and configure. Even though your software experience is way beyond this book maybe its worth picking it up to read the install notes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I picked up the book, "Sams Teach Yourself Android Application Development in 24 Hours" and it has a section for setting up the environment too. Followed it to the letter several times and always had this problems. I think the issue comes down to the books were written using version 6 and 7 of the SDK and the current version, 8, has introduced some problems the books don't cover. For example, the tools directory has been split into two directories, tools and platform-tools. When you first download the SDK, you don't get everything you had like before until you update the SDK.
I have talked to several other people who also had the problem with the ADB crashing like I did, even started a thread here about it. No one could get any help anywhere on resolving the issue. I think the problems I have that others don't see is because they started with an earlier version of the SDK.
Gene Poole said:
I'm a professional developer as well too. 20 years or so as a C/C++ developer, but I've worked most of my career as a Unix developer. Naturally, I use linux where possible and my Eclipse setup on Gentoo linux is pretty stable. I tried on Win7-64 but it was buggy as heck. I believe that the problem is with Java. There seems to be so many ways to set it up wrong that I'm not sure you can set it up right under windows.
I find it ironic that Oracle is trying to sue Google for making a JVM that actually works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have also setup the development platform on a linux system and haven't had the problems I have with Windows 7 64bit. I also feel a lot of the problems have come from the Windows 64bit platform and even windows in general. I tried installing on a clean 64bit and 32bit Windows 7 and was still having the ADB problem. As soon as I get my tax refunds, I'm going to get a work desk setup at home so I can try using my linux system (it sits on the floor with no monitor and is my network server). Boss will really love it if I tell him we have to set up linux platforms to develop on. Guy is a bit of a tight wad when it comes to equipment.
edboston said:
If you are an app developer, are you running into these issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, I didn't have any stability problems with SDK. I use linux 32-bit, didn't try to work on a Windows, MacOS and/or 64-bit arch.
I've not seen any of your problems, either.
FYI, I followed these instructions to set up the env:
http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html
(Environment - WinXP/32 netbook)
Eclipse is buggy. The most annoying issue with it is that the auto complete freezes your computer at times.
An alternative is IntelliJ. They offer a free community addition. I work with one dev that swears by it.
I use Windows7x64 and Ubuntu 10.10 to develop my apps. I use IntelliJ mostly because I find Eclipse to be convoluted overcomplicated mess. I think the Android integration in Eclipse is better, especially around editing some of the key XML files but I despise how projects are organized in Eclipse.
The OS you use really doesn't matter the results are the same, once you're up and running the work will be the same so the OS becomes irrelevant. The IDE becomes the differentiator.
I haven't met with the issues you mentioned, but as you said it can be because I installed the sdk a long time ago (after google anounced the eclair). I'm using eclipse and yes, that program is full of bugs, but I read an article about developing for android in Netbeans (my personal favorite). You can read it here: http://androidportal.hu/2011-01-09/fejlesztes-androidra-netbeans-segitsegevel (it's hungarian, but google translate is our friend)
Sent from my GT-I5700 using XDA App
MotoDev Studio 2.01
stick to 32-bit Galileo
for the slow autocomplete problem, I've made sure to use eclipse Galileo, something in Helios was causing massive lag. Also make sure you're running the 32-bit version of eclipse, even if your machine is 64-bit, there are definitely some bugs last time I tried to install ADT on 64-bit eclipse.
the new tools directory was a bit of a pain after updating to the latest API but nothing too bad once you figured it out.
I haven't had many of the other problems you mentioned. I always debug with adb logcat from terminal, and you can always hop into the device with adb shell.
I use eclipse every day at work so I've kind of gotten used to all the little quirks. I had the chinese text problem with the emulator, but I do most of my testing on a real phone. I use the emulator just to try out different resolutions.
I want to do some Android development and I currently have access to a Vaio running Vista Home Premium and a MacBook Pro running Leopard. I was considering installing Linux or Ubuntu on my Vaio, is this a good idea? What are the perks to an open source OS (I can only imagine after seeing what Linux based Android OS is capable of)
jbraucht said:
I want to do some Android development and I currently have access to a Vaio running Vista Home Premium and a MacBook Pro running Leopard. I was considering installing Linux or Ubuntu on my Vaio, is this a good idea? What are the perks to an open source OS (I can only imagine after seeing what Linux based Android OS is capable of)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think there's any as far as Android development is concerned. ADB and Eclipse run on Windows just as fine as they do on Linux, and if you need any GNU tools there's always Cygwin.
I develop under Linux myself, but that's just because it's my main OS (after you get around all the problems and learn how to use it basic tasks become quicker by a fair amount). If I were using Windows, I doubt I would bother putting Linux on my machine just for Android development.
Either way, it's up to you to try and see whichever is more comfortable for you.
I like the spirit of Linux. Microsoft is a soul sucking evil, not to mention Vista drains ungodly resources just to idle. If I load Ubuntu will it wipe my hd like any other OS? I don't have an external at the moment, is it possible to make a small storage partition that won't get touched?
Sent from your girlfriend's Captivate
jbraucht said:
I like the spirit of Linux. Microsoft is a soul sucking evil, not to mention Vista drains ungodly resources just to idle. If I load Ubuntu will it wipe my hd like any other OS? I don't have an external at the moment, is it possible to make a small storage partition that won't get touched?
Sent from your girlfriend's Captivate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all depends on how you partition your HDD. If you have enough free space you can just shrink your Vista partition and install Ubuntu alongside it in a separate partition thus leaving your Windows untouched. Hit Google with something like "installing Ubuntu after Vista" and you'll get many useful guides.
Just note that after installing Ubuntu you might need a lot of coffee, many hours, or days, and lots of head bashing against the table before you will get everything to work as you'd like After that you'll be free again... totally free, until you decide to upgrade to a newer release
martino2k6 said:
Just note that after installing Ubuntu you might need a lot of coffee, many hours, or days, and lots of head bashing against the table before you will get everything to work as you'd like After that you'll be free again... totally free, until you decide to upgrade to a newer release
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now you're scaring me. i have my vaio open in front of me and all i can think is "remember how much stumbling through freeing the captivate made you a crazy person? just wait."
Now I'm getting tempted to wipe my old XP computer and stick Linux on it. Could be fun to learn.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
You can boot Ubuntu from CD-ROM or USB stick if you want to try it out. Of course it's a lot slower than a full installation but at least it won't touch your harddisc! Check out the Ubuntu site for instructions.
I have two laptops at home and in the meanwhile I'm running Ubuntu on both of them. The first one is dual booting with Windows 7 (in case I want to do some gaming) and on the second one I totally wiped out Windows!!!
I never did any Linux before but so far I didn't run into any problems at all. Ubuntu is working smooth directly after installation. No problem to connect to WLAN (just as easy as on Windows 7) and downloading apps, development tools, and whatever from Ubuntu software store is just as easy as on Android!
For Android app development you don't necessary need any Linux. But if you want to play with the NDK then you might want to know that there's no Google support for Windows, so Linux is recommended here. If you want to compile the Android OS itself then a Linux machine is more suitable as well.
On Windows there's still the possibilty to use some Cygwin emulation or whatever but I never tried it myself, instead I thought for myself: I want to do Linux or I don't want to do Linux?
If you are more comfortable with a Linux PC then you'll also get a better understanding on the way Android is working in case you are interested in the internals, file system, shell, etc.
jbraucht said:
now you're scaring me. i have my vaio open in front of me and all i can think is "remember how much stumbling through freeing the captivate made you a crazy person? just wait."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, well maybe I was a bit too harsh. Really depends how anal you are about things working properly
I have faith in my ability to fix anything. I can't change the boot options on my vaio tho, I can't get to the right menu
Sent from your girlfriend's Captivate
I recommend ubuntu. Compared to earlier years, almost everything just works out of the box, very basic and easy. You can load up a live cd/usb, install along side your current os with a very small partition size [I use about 8g out of my 120g hdd] because ubuntu is smart enough to read ntfs file systems, so it will be able to read anything that is on the windows partition as well. It will automatically install grub, allowing you to pick between os's when you boot, and everything is swell. Though i would upgrade to windows 7 first, as vista = crap
Id like to Dual boot linux onto windows 8, yet I have no idea how. Help please!
There are a large number of questions you need to answer first, which you haven't. For example:
1) What model of computer?
2) Are you trying to set up a dual-boot machine, or to boot Linux within Windows? Both are possible and your post does not make it clear.
3) Is there a particular Linux distribution you intend to use?
4) Do you have a 32-bit or 64-bit system?
5) Do you care whether the Windows or Linux bootloader loads first?
6) Do you have BitLocker drive encryption enabled?
7) Do you intend to have a "shared" partition for data used by both OSes, or to keep them fully separate?
... I'm just going to stop there.
Seriously, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of tutorials on the Internet for installing various distros of Linux onto various machines. Win8 introduces the possibilities that you'll need to disable Secure Boot and also the possibility that the CPU you're using is crippled to only work with Windows. You haven't even provided us with enough info to tell you which one, and we are *not* here to hold your hand through installing an OS you apparently know basically nothing about. Besides, if you hadn't noticed, this is a Windows forum, not a Linux forum.
GoodDayToDie said:
There are a large number of questions you need to answer first, which you haven't. For example:
1) What model of computer?
2) Are you trying to set up a dual-boot machine, or to boot Linux within Windows? Both are possible and your post does not make it clear.
3) Is there a particular Linux distribution you intend to use?
4) Do you have a 32-bit or 64-bit system?
5) Do you care whether the Windows or Linux bootloader loads first?
6) Do you have BitLocker drive encryption enabled?
7) Do you intend to have a "shared" partition for data used by both OSes, or to keep them fully separate?
... I'm just going to stop there.
Seriously, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of tutorials on the Internet for installing various distros of Linux onto various machines. Win8 introduces the possibilities that you'll need to disable Secure Boot and also the possibility that the CPU you're using is crippled to only work with Windows. You haven't even provided us with enough info to tell you which one, and we are *not* here to hold your hand through installing an OS you apparently know basically nothing about. Besides, if you hadn't noticed, this is a Windows forum, not a Linux forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I understand you're not here to hold my hand, but I am willing to learn even though I am extremely inexperienced. I want to become experienced.
1) HP Dv6-6033cl
2) Id like to run a dual boot machine.
3) I need to use 13.04 or 13.10, either will work fine.
4) I have a 64-bit version
5) I really dont care which boots first, Id just like to be able to run Linux so I can use it to program.
6) No, bitlocker is not on.
7) Id like to keep them completely seperate.
Again, I understand that this isn't a hold your hand deal. I apologize for that, but I want to learn and dont know where to start. Id love to learn all about partitions, booting different OS, being able to know the computer inside and out, not just your average user. Maybe you can point me in the right direction. That much is more than appreciated.
OK, from the version numbers you quoted, I'm assuming you're referring to Ubuntu ("Ubuntu" is not another word for Linux; it's a particular configuration of software packages running atop a Linux kernel, called a "distribution". Specifying Ubuntu is the kind of thing you should have included in your first post. There are over 750 Linux distros out there, no joke). The good news is that there are *so many* tutorials about installing Ubuntu as a dual-boot that it's literally not even worth finding a particular one to recommend. They also have their own forums (not here on XDA; you want http://ubuntuforums.org) full of info.
Another important point is the "what you want to do with it" bit, which you did cover a bit. Unless there's a specific reason it needs to be Linux, you actually almost certainly could get by with using either Windows development tools, installing MinGW (Linux-style development tools running in the Windows environment), or installing and running Cygwin and using the Linux-like tools in the POSIX-on-Windows environment it provides. For older Windows versions there was actually an official POSIX-on-NT environment from Microsoft, called Interix, but it's been deprecated (a shame; I used it to do some Linux-targeted development back in college when my laptop wasn't really beefy enough that a VM was a good idea and dual-booting would have been a pain, and I still use it today for everything from my preferred command-line shell to remote login to version control software to... you get the idea). Ubuntu is actually far from my first recommendation for a dev environment - it's a "least common denominator" desktop-oriented distro, so you may need to configure it a bit for dev work - but it's certainly capable and its popularity means you won't have any trouble finding help.
Looking for help on a Windows subforum of a mobile device forum when your question involves installing Linux on a non-mobile device isn't the best idea, though.
As far as I know what I'm going to do with it, it's an OS to start developing. I have no clue what to do yet, but I am in the process of learning! I thought itd be a good idea to go to a Windows 8 subform because my current OS is Windows 8 and, from what Ive read, I need to disable "Secure Boot", change BIOS settings, etc. I have literally done EVERYTHING I can think of and look up, including tutorials, talking to people who have already done it, the whole lot. I feel stuck! I need a solution I cant solve! Im sure after I figure the solution I will be perfectly fine! The issue is, though, I can not access the BIOS. I even created an unallocated partition. When I go to settings I do this:
Settings > Change PC Settings > General > Restart Now
On Restart, I go Troubleshoot > Advanced Options
Now, theres suppose to be some kind of settings for BIOS/UEFI, yet its missing! I cant access it because it doesnt exist on my bootup!
Ive also tried to get to the BIOS by pressing F1, F2, and DELETE to no avail.
Like I said, I am so stuck its not even funny. Its quite frustrating. If you have any developing environment setups you recommend, please reco, mmend away! I love doing this kinda stuff. Its a challenge and frustrating, yet when I get through it, its rewarding. Thats why I really want to start developing and giving back to this site. Theyve given me so much for my E4GT, I wanna give back.
Anyway, do you think you could have a possible solution?
As far as I know what I'm going to do with it, it's an OS to start developing. I have no clue what to do yet, but I am in the process of learning! I thought itd be a good idea to go to a Windows 8 subform because my current OS is Windows 8 and, from what Ive read, I need to disable "Secure Boot", change BIOS settings, etc. I have literally done EVERYTHING I can think of and look up, including tutorials, talking to people who have already done it, the whole lot. I feel stuck! I need a solution I cant solve! Im sure after I figure the solution I will be perfectly fine! The issue is, though, I can not access the BIOS. I even created an unallocated partition. When I go to settings I do this:
Settings > Change PC Settings > General > Restart Now
On Restart, I go Troubleshoot > Advanced Options
Now, theres suppose to be some kind of settings for BIOS/UEFI, yet its missing! I cant access it because it doesnt exist on my bootup!
Ive also tried to get to the BIOS by pressing F1, F2, and DELETE to no avail.
Like I said, I am so stuck its not even funny. Its quite frustrating. If you have any developing environment setups you recommend, please recommend away! I love doing this kinda stuff. Its a challenge and frustrating, yet when I get through it, its rewarding. Thats why I really want to start developing and giving back to this site. Theyve given me so much for my E4GT, I wanna give back.
Anyway, do you think you could have a possible solution?
I apologize, I hadnt realized I posted the same post twice. Still new at this!
If its a hewlett packard, usually they use F2 as the bios key. Shut the laptop down. Press power and as soon as the screen backlight comes on (which is usually instantly) hit F2.
But I really dont recommend going through the hassle of dual booting ubuntu with windows just to learn how to program. Most of the time you dont need linux, Cygwin or MinGW at all and can purely go windows based from day 1. Learning C or C++ without an IDE I do find is easiest in a linux environment so that I would recommend at least cygwin. But even so, for just programming you would probably be better off just using virtualbox if you dont want to use cygwin, it allows you to run one operating system within another like so:
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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Thats bodhi I was using there, my favourite linux distro. Its ubuntu based so anything that says "hey I work on ubuntu" works on it usually and guides that walk you through the process of setting something up on ubuntu often apply to bodhi. But out of the box you get the enlightenment desktop instead of unity and you basically dont get any software beyond midori and terminology. Fits on a CD. Because of the lack of software though I won't recommend a linux newcomer who would probably be better suited to ubuntu or mint (of the 2 I prefer mint, also ubuntu compatible).
Never be afraid of a command line interface/console/terminal/command prompt/cmd/whatever you want to call it. Hell, on windows right now hold the windows key + R, enter CMD and then click ok. You might suddenly think you've stepped into a time machine, but its a powerful tool and still relevant in this day and age. All of your first programs will be on the command line. Many software dev tools will be on the command line. My preferred text editor on linux is also on the command line (nano, bit barebones but thats how I like my editors).
Now more importantly. The entire reason for this was programming. Programming what is a better question. It would probably be more useful to you to know where to start and what tools are right for you than to know how to set up linux. Honestly, if the aim is just to have a bit of code you wrote flashing your name on the screen all over the place etc without a particular aim yet, then I would suggest Python, specifically Python 2 over Python 3 as I personally find the online resources and 3rd party libraries are more plentiful for 2, although either one works. actually, scratch that, python is probably a good starting point for learning how to program regardless.
On windows all you will need to do is download and install python: http://www.python.org/download/ and also have a decent text editor with syntax highlighting so basically anything but notepad and certainly not an office type program, python includes IDLE which I have a severe disliking of, notepad++ is a popular choice on windows though, code-edit is on the windows store and pretty decent (yeah I went there suggesting a windows 8 app, deal with it haters ) and I personally use GEdit. On OSX and linux Python 2 is preinstalled so all you need is the text editor.
Google Fu is also required Plenty of tutorials out there.
Yes, the whole point is learn how to program properly and setup a decent developing enviornment! Ill try the suggestions you made, since I cant access UEFI/BIOS at all. It's as if the damn thing is non-existent.
SixSixSevenSeven said:
If its a hewlett packard, usually they use F2 as the bios key. Shut the laptop down. Press power and as soon as the screen backlight comes on (which is usually instantly) hit F2.
But I really dont recommend going through the hassle of dual booting ubuntu with windows just to learn how to program. Most of the time you dont need linux, Cygwin or MinGW at all and can purely go windows based from day 1. Learning C or C++ without an IDE I do find is easiest in a linux environment so that I would recommend at least cygwin. But even so, for just programming you would probably be better off just using virtualbox if you dont want to use cygwin, it allows you to run one operating system within another like so:
Thats bodhi I was using there, my favourite linux distro. Its ubuntu based so anything that says "hey I work on ubuntu" works on it usually and guides that walk you through the process of setting something up on ubuntu often apply to bodhi. But out of the box you get the enlightenment desktop instead of unity and you basically dont get any software beyond midori and terminology. Fits on a CD. Because of the lack of software though I won't recommend a linux newcomer who would probably be better suited to ubuntu or mint (of the 2 I prefer mint, also ubuntu compatible).
Never be afraid of a command line interface/console/terminal/command prompt/cmd/whatever you want to call it. Hell, on windows right now hold the windows key + R, enter CMD and then click ok. You might suddenly think you've stepped into a time machine, but its a powerful tool and still relevant in this day and age. All of your first programs will be on the command line. Many software dev tools will be on the command line. My preferred text editor on linux is also on the command line (nano, bit barebones but thats how I like my editors).
Now more importantly. The entire reason for this was programming. Programming what is a better question. It would probably be more useful to you to know where to start and what tools are right for you than to know how to set up linux. Honestly, if the aim is just to have a bit of code you wrote flashing your name on the screen all over the place etc without a particular aim yet, then I would suggest Python, specifically Python 2 over Python 3 as I personally find the online resources and 3rd party libraries are more plentiful for 2, although either one works. actually, scratch that, python is probably a good starting point for learning how to program regardless.
On windows all you will need to do is download and install python: http://www.python.org/download/ and also have a decent text editor with syntax highlighting so basically anything but notepad and certainly not an office type program, python includes IDLE which I have a severe disliking of, notepad++ is a popular choice on windows though, code-edit is on the windows store and pretty decent (yeah I went there suggesting a windows 8 app, deal with it haters ) and I personally use GEdit. On OSX and linux Python 2 is preinstalled so all you need is the text editor.
Google Fu is also required Plenty of tutorials out there.
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Clarification: OP was wanting to learn more about kernel/AOSP build development, hence why I suggested a dual boot Linux. Virtualized Linux processes, at least even on Win 7, took a serious performance hit where a kernel build took over an hour even on a i7.
I'm aware that apps can be developed without going to Linux but it was my understanding that he'll need to to do the above - and at least in my experience VMs won't cut it. Options welcome.
I ended up dual booting Ubuntu 13.10 alongside Windows 8. I had troubles creating a partition for Ubuntu and seemed to have accidentally formatted the biggest drive, which I believe was where the Windows 8 OS was stored. I successfully put Ubuntu on there, or so I thought. Upon restart, I entered the GRUB boot selector. I first attempted to enter the Ubuntu OS, which brought me to a black writable page. I restarted the HP and tried booting into Windows 8. It gave me the error that the OS is missing. Now Im stuck in the bootloader and cant access my PC. I have an HP Dv6-6033cl laptop with a 750 hard drive I believe. Any help is appreciated.
I ended up dual booting Ubuntu 13.10 alongside Windows 8. I had troubles creating a partition for Ubuntu and seemed to have accidentally formatted the biggest drive, which I believe was where the Windows 8 OS was stored. I successfully put Ubuntu on there, or so I thought. Upon restart, I entered the GRUB boot selector. I first attempted to enter the Ubuntu OS, which brought me to a black writable page. I restarted the HP and tried booting into Windows 8. It gave me the error that the OS is missing. Now Im stuck in the bootloader and cant access my PC. I have an HP Dv6-6033cl laptop with a 750 hard drive I believe. Any help is appreciated.